Defending champion Iga Swiatek was bundled out of the Italian Open by American Danielle Collins, who beat the Polish world No. 2 6-1, 7-5 in the round of 32 on Saturday.
Five-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek went down 5-0 in the opening set before managing to get on the board and avoid a bagel.
Collins was lethal from the baseline, mixing it up with forehand and backhand service return winners as she picked apart Swiatek’s serve in an opening set that was one-way traffic.
While the first set was all one-way traffic, the second was level at 4-4 before 2022 Australian Open runner-up Collins pulled away with the win in 1 hour, 44 minutes.
Swiatek, who held a commanding 7-1 head-to-head record against Collins heading into the contest, has not won a tournament in almost a year.
“I played Iga so many times. The winning favor is in her favor,” Collins said. “When you play that many close matches and play some of your best tennis but lose, you learn a lot. I feel like I applied that today.”
Collins fired 32 winners and converted six of eight break points while Swiatek, who had won the tournament three times in the last four years, made 22 unforced errors.
Swiatek has lost nine matches this year – as many as in all of 2024 – while she has not reached a claycourt final ahead of her bid to retain the French Open title later this month.
Source link
